In the news

In light of the recent Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act I agree that phrase sounds ugly but in the case of that statement I'm inclined to apply Hanlon's razor.....

I read that statement as a squirming excuse to try and point out that if you're a protester filming their incompetence with your phone you'll still get nicked.

Given that it took them 14h to realise they're not supposed to lock up press phototgraphers I suspect they're total fuckwits so that level of childishness would seem appropriate

Isn't it pretty difficult to define "press" in the modern age of youtubers, twitter experts etc? Not everyone with a legitimate interest in covering an event will work for The Guardian or The Times.

Not everyone with a legitimate interest in covering an event will work for The Guardian or The Times.

Great for the busies then, means they can arrest them

A press card is supposed to indicate to police that someone is a working journalist. Freelances can get them. There's a process.

working journalist. Freelances can get them. There's a process.

But if you are a local blogger who happens to come across something you aren't going to have a press card even though I'd argue you are just as legitimate, in some ways more as a local.

I think the truth is that the Herts chief constable wants to shunt future protests to some other force. They're a huge drain on police resources, especially for a smaller force. If he goes over the top and puts press and/or protesters in the cells overnight and searches their homes, the protesters will fuck off back to London and console themselves that if they hit targets in the capital they might get more publicity.

Local non-journalist stumbling across a national story and getting big coverage only happens in the movies. In the real world the real journalists find out and arrive within an hour or two.

Maybe but the local blogger shouldn't get arrested for their efforts.

the protesters will fuck off back to London and console themselves that if they hit targets in the capital they might get more publicity

Heavy-handed police responses are usually counterproductive in these situations - photos of protestors being dragged away in handcuffs are pretty powerful. Whilst the experience in the cells will have been thoroughly unpleasant for the LBC journo it also gives her a massive platform.

I was thinking about this incident a lot today.

I personally don't believe we've got a police force that is actively trying to crack down on journalists so tend to think that this is just sheer ineptitude more than anything.

That said, can I hand on heart say that we aren't headed in that direction? Not really! If somebody told me that in two years journalists would be regularly arrested for covering protests I'd believe you.

You do need a decent number of police for a police state.

My dad said when he was in Spain in the 60s police never travelled in less than 2s, due to the risk of them being bumbed off or kidnapped. I wonder if the same happened in Greece or East Germany?

bumbed off

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They traveled in 3s, one could read, one could write and one to keep an eye on the two dangerous intellectuals.

Thank you, I’m here all week, try the tofu

Slightly off topic but I remember reading about the East German secret police. It was reckoned that 1 in 3 people were in the pay of the Stazi to keep an eye on what the population were up to...

I do find it mildly and darkly amusing that "the press" (mainly the right wing rags, admittedly, but they're not alone) has been honking loudly about more crackdowns on protesters for years and being generally unsympathetic in its coverage of Just Stop Oil/similar environmental protests and the result of that appears to be they get caught up in the inevitably harsher crackdowns too.

Terrible for the journalists/snappers, of course. Though I doubt it'll lead to a bit more reflection on the timbre of their coverage in future despite this latest worrying development.

One photographer and someone from LBC? It's hardly "the press".

I know we have a specific Brexit thread but Wolfson's comments this morning are proper lol

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63573988.amp

"this wasn't the Brexit I voted for etc"

Asking a weakened Tory government to give up the only ground they have left, their only opportunity to survive is, to use that much loved Brexitier phrase, for the birds.

Listened to him on the Today programme this morning. Absolute madness.

...what post-Brexit Britain looks like, is not the preserve of those people that voted Brexit, it's for all of us to decide.

"Sensible people need to help dig us out of this mess because nutters like me aren't qualified to do it."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63573988

More of his comments...

I think he doesn't quite understand a lot of people are mad about immigration as a proxy for being mad about low wages and high rents.

Making businesses pay an immigration fee to the government won't fix that...

https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/23113639.investigation-man-scooter-kills-norwich-pigeon/

Next time I'm in Norfolk I'll be reporting any roadkill I see to the police as a possible offence.

He swerves like a motherfucker. Murder.

Stuff like this from Hertfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner does make you wonder:

"Your editorial policy needs to reflect whether or not we want to be part of the problem which is how Just Stop Oil are managing to get their message out their so very successfully,”

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/police-boss-sorry-lbc-arrest/

What japes.

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